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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

My Strange Addiction: Beer Vines

Posted by
Patrick Mullin

My name is Pat, and I have a problem. It's not the beer. I mean, yeah, I drink a lot of it. But I've got a handle on that. I'm still totally functional and a mildly respected member of society (okay, not really). My issues arise when beer meets technology and social media. Guys, I'm addicted to making beer Vines.

When the video app Vine was finally released for Android devices (go on, laugh away, Apple addicts) last week, I didn't think much of it. Really, most of the Vine clips I had seen on Twitter were 6 seconds of inane, useless crap. Why would anyone want to use this? With my curiosity piqued, though, I went ahead and downloaded. And my eyes were opened up.

Amid all the boring clips of people's cats is a world of creative stop-motion animation. As a kid, I dreamed of being a cartoonist and animator, so I immediately got sucked into the idea of creating my own stop-motion pieces. Combined with inspiration delivered via the Beer Labels in Motion Tumblr, my beer Vine addiction started to spiral out of control.

It began with a basic test of my stop-motion abilities. A can of Thunderhead GoldenFrau served nicely as my first beer Vine guinea pig:

Then, I got a little more daring. I started to play off the beer names and labels, beginning with a sprouting Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest:

And moved on to playing with lighting techniques, utilizing Tallgrass Ethos:

When I thought it couldn't get much worse, I started creating backdrops out of construction paper (I promised my daughter I'd replenish her supply). A bottle of Bell's Oarsman went for a ride in my first moving environment:

And most recently, my level of nerd skyrocketed with this Free State Ironman/Iron Man themed clip:

So here I sit, pondering what my next 6 second beer homage will be. Sad? Yeah, probably. Do I have too much time on my hands? Oh, definitely. Do I desperately need a girlfriend? YEP. And are there people who look at the above videos and think they are also inane, useless crap? Yes and they are jerks. But still, the animating kid in me and the beer-loving adult in me are finding a harmonious common thread, all thanks to this simple video app.

My name is Pat, and I have a problem with excessive beer Vines. But I don't need treatment, I just need a lifetime supply of construction paper.

Your next one should be a scene with Founders' Backwoods Bastard and the guys from Deliverance. Or maybe 2 bottles could play dueling banjos.

By the way, love the sour/tart beers, and wanted to say thanks for pointing out the Oarsman Ale a few posts back. Had no idea it was a sour. Will be keeping my beer fridge stocked with it all summer now!